Well it is true that Bleach and Naruto probably are some of the most popular anime today outside of Japan. However, when it comes to what made anime popular on a wide scale, I think Pokemon and Sailor Moon are the winners. Of course there are earlier series that got popular to a certain extent, but if we talk about really large scale, I would have to say the two I mentioned above.

NocturnalOcean wrote:Well it is true that Bleach and Naruto probably are some of the most popular anime today outside of Japan. However, when it comes to what made anime popular on a wide scale, I think Pokemon and Sailor Moon are the winners. Of course there are earlier series that got popular to a certain extent, but if we talk about really large scale, I would have to say the two I mentioned above.